Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Puff pastry sheets are nothing but layers of flour separated by layers of butter and when it is placed in the oven,the butter creates the steam and puffs up the layers.Did you know a perfect made puff pastry sheet had 729 layers?? Though puff pastry sheets are easily available here in stores,yet I wished to try these to keep this as a keeper esp when we get back to India and to identify the amount of ingredients & efforts being put in it while making these sheets.And I must say am now addicted to these home made puff pastry sheets.They were real buttery,flaky and delicious than the store ones.

This is my second attempt in preparing these sheets.In my first attempt ,I forgot to click the step wise snaps and so this time could click some.The only thing I would like to tell is you need to have a lot of patience to roll and wait for the next fold.You may fine the word 'fold' and 'turn' frequently used in making these sheets.'Fold' refers to folding the dough in third like a letter and 'turn' refers to turning the dough so that it face you like a book (see pictures to understand better).Please do read the points to remember before you start making the sheets.The recipe is bookmarked from Naughty Curry,Thanx Deepa for the recipe so well explained that it was very easy to follow.Do check this out and enjoy baking them:-)

METHOD-FOR PREPARING PUFF PASTRY SHEETS
-Sift the flours and salt together.
-Add the chilled,cubed pieces of butter in it.Gently rub the butter along with flour to get a coarse mixture or grainy with your hand or food processor.
-Add vinegar and ice cold water.Knead into a smooth pliable dough.Refrigerate immediately by wrapping in a cling wrap until next use.

Mixing the butter with flour & Whacking the other 2 sticks of butter

-Put the other unsalted butter(cold) mentioned in the list in between two layers of cling wrap or Ziploc bags and whack using the rolling pin into a mashed form or shape it in the form of a rectangle 5"* 8"(approx)
-Flour a rolling surface(refer notes) and roll out the refrigerated cold dough into a rectangle of 8"*12".Roll out in such a way that each side has a protruding dog ear.Brush off the excess flour using pastry brush.
-Place the whacked butter slab in between the rolled dough and fold the four edges of the dough to cover the dough & seal it completely such that the butter should not be visible.
-Gently press and rock the rolling pin back & forth over the dough ,slowly stretching the butter and the dough to form a rectangle.Rock in between to stretch the butter but make sure the butter doesn't seep out the dough.Brush off excess any flour.

'Fold' like business letter as shown on left & then rolling out after the final fold)

-Fold in third like a business letter(as in pic),make sure to brush excess flour and this completes the first fold.
-Wrap it in a cling wrap and refrigerate for half an hour.
-Remove the dough from the refrgerator and turn to place in such a way that it faces you like a book.Lightly dust with flour and placing it facing you like a book ,roll using a rolling pin and stretch again to form a rectangle with rocking and pressing motion.And then brush the excess flour and turn it by 90 degrees to face you like a book and fold in third like business letter as shown before.This completes the 2 nd fold.
-Refrigerate again half an hour and repeat the same step until you complete 6 th fold -7th fold.I completed inn 7th fold.
-After the final turn,roll it out into half inch thick rectangle.Either store as it is or cut in small pieces of 4" squares and separate each with parchment paper to prevent sticking.Freeze by wrapping in cling film until next use.

Servings ~ 15 pieces of 4" square pieces (2 sheets)

POINTS TO REMEMBER WHILE MAKING PUFF PASTRY SHEETS

* Butter should be kept cold at all times.If you feel butter is melting or oozing at any point of time when rolling,refrigerate immediately.

* Winters or an air conditioned room works best to prepare the dough.Use only your finger tips to handle the dough or minimal handling when folding and turning.Our body temperature too transfers into the dough and the butter melts.The best temperature the dough prepared is 16 degrees C or 60degrees F.

* Use a cold surface to roll out the dough.I usually use the back of a large tray so that I can leave it on top f it each time after rolling.Refrigerate both the rolling pin and the tray for best results.*The dough must be refrigerated after every fold for a minimum of half an hour to allow gluten in the flour to link up and retain layering.

* The vinegar or lime juice is used to make the dough more elastic and pliable so that it doesn't break while rolling & folding.I used vinegar.

* Keep an account of number of folds and turns so that you don't miss the number.

* For ideal results when baking,refrigerate the filled puffs for 15 minutes before placing in the oven.

* The original recipe uses 1 1/2 tsp of salt,though in my first attempt I found it was quite high .This time I reduced to 1/2 tsp and that was correct.

FOR TUNA PUFFS- Prepare the filling

Rinsethe tuna under running water and drain in a colander.(I used the packet one with less water in it)

You made these puff pastry sheets at home! Reminded me of my uncle who loved baking and even at the age of 70 when we visited him he made these puffs for us. I know the effort that goes into this. Hats off to you!

Before I even start complimenting let me say those puffs are making me drool....and Puffs are one things I absolutely miss eating here in Minneapolis. Yours have come out perfect...I need to go back to your older posts and check out wat all yummy stuff I missed in the past few weeks during my vacation :)

and thank you soooooooooo much for writing such lovely comments on Appu's B'day post and on my facebook page and he really did love that cake :-)

Chicken puff with homemade puff pastry sheets was my first recipe I tried out when I bought my convec oven about 5 years back. I got the recipe from youtube video and it came out well.but unfortunately I didn't have food blog at that time. Now I have a food blog and since I am busy with my kids I don't get time to prepare these puff pastries, yet I can enjoy by seeing yours!!!!